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Tag Archives: The Soap Dispensary Vancouver

Christmas around here is uproarious. With 6-9 young adults and two dogs coming and going, games and food are constantly on the table, or in the case of the dogs, on the floor (for a split second.)In a rebellious moment, I decided to eschew all the traditional Christmas tree decorations and simply use the Chinese lantern (Physalis alkekengi) skeletons from the plants originating with a gift our niece gave me 3 years ago, plus pine cones, and birds. Thankfully, the ‘kids’ did most of the placement, so I didn’t have to climb those ladders.

The dishwasher and clotheswashers are in full throttle. Sauna and steam room likewise. Space heaters and seasonal lights, too. We all use much more energy than little ol’ D and I use when we’re here alone.

The whole point of Christmas is to spend time together as a family. Over the years, we’ve reduced our commercial footprint to nearly nil. Now, we each contribute a small, often hand-made gift to each other’s stocking. Each year, I’m impressed anew with the thought and originality of each person’s contribution.

I’ve long wanted to learn to make soap, and a short lecture at our local botanical garden got me started. I managed to make three kinds of soap (Skin Rx hockey puck, eucalyptus, and calendula/borage), some beard balm and beard oil, and foot soak for the stockings, and it was fun!

To make cold-process soap, the basic ingredients are lye, water, and oils. There are plenty of recipes online, and it’s important to learn about the process before you make a batch, because the lye can be dangerous, the proportions of oils to lye vary depending on the oils used, and the additives must be added at a certain stage. My goals are to use organic and vegan ingredients as far as possible.

I’m most proud of my hockey puck soap (so Canadian) – it’s got activated charcoal and a luffa sponge that I grew myself (seeds from West Coast Seeds.) Activated charcoal is often used in face masques to detoxify skin and scour out bacteria.

I lined a 3″ pvc pipe, 12″ long, with baking parchment paper, taped plastic to the bottom, inserted the loofa, and poured the batter all around (beaten to a light trace – you will learn about this when you research.) After 72 hours, the soap had dried enough to shrink it, allowing me to slide it out of the tube. I cut it with the paper still on, which helped to hold it together, using a sharp filetting knife.

For another stocking gift, I used some old (clean) socks to corral soap nuts, which are actually the husks of nuts grown in India (purchased at The Soap Dispensary in Vancouver, BC, Canada, also available at many online soap-making suppliers.) They create a lather, and the little packets should wash 6-8 loads of laundry.

And, just to give you a little giggle, here is the floor below our poor Charlie Brown bush-found hemlock (I requested a fir), 4 days after we installed it: Thanks for reading, and Happy Gnu Year.